A proposal by Bethlehem’s mayor to raise the city’s amusement tax up to $1 a ticket could force Sands Bethlehem Event Center to offer fewer shows – with more comedy and less music – and detour patrons and performers around the city to Allentown’s new arena, the event center’s owners say.

Jeff Trainer and Richard Welkowitz, two of the three partners in Vision Entertainment, which built and operates the event center, says the increased tax – which would add a maximum $2.50 to every ticket at the event center and other performances in Bethlehem – punishes the center for bringing business to Bethlehem.

Trainer said the message is, “Let’s put a detour around Bethlehem to the Allentown arena, where they don’t have a tax.”

Bethlehem Mayor Robert Donchez, at a City Council meeting on Tuesday, proposed raising the cap on the city’s 5-percent amusement tax from $1.50 a ticket to $2.50, saying it would raise $200,000 more next year. Donchez said it’s part of a plan to tackle a $5.9 million spending increase in next year’s budget due to health and pension costs.

That means every ticket costing $50 or more would carry a $2.50 city tax.

Trainer said the entertainment tax would be the highest in the state. He said the event center has paid Bethlehem $337,000 in the tax since it was implemented in January, and in addition has paid $191,000 to the police department and EMTs.

DENISE SANCHEZ / THE MORNING CALL

Sands Event Center

Sands Event Center (DENISE SANCHEZ / THE MORNING CALL)

Trainer noted that having fewer shows at the arena also would reduce police and EMT costs.

Trainer said Bethlehem courted Vision Entertainment to build the event center in the city, noting that previous mayor John Callahan met with them to persuade them to pick Bethlehem over Allentown and other cities.

Trainer noted the event center, unlike the PPL Center set to open next week in Allentown, was built without any public money.

“We have not taken any help from any government body,” Trainer said. “We built this, really one of the [city’s] best businesses, with our own dollars.”

Trainer said the likely results of the higher tax would be:

Some acts that are activists for their fans would bypass Bethlehem because of the higher ticket prices. Trainer said the event center tries hard to keep prices fair. “We could make a whole lot more money if we charged more,” he said.

“Entertainers love to come here,” Trainer said. “But when you kill off culture, you kill off a community.”

People will stop coming to shows in Bethlehem because of the higher ticket prices.

The event center would end up doing fewer shows than the 120 a year it now offers – especially music shows, for which Trainer says there is a low profit margin. “We’ve been growing this thing on volume. We don’t have to do as many [shows] as we do.”

It will end up doing more comedy shows, for which there is a higher profit margin because the stage set-up is much cheaper, as are the performers’ fees. “We can make a lot of money on comedy,” he said. On music, he said, the center often break even, especially on the bigger acts “because we pay them so much.”

Trainer said having fewer shows at the arena would have a domino effect. He says the event center’s Sunday-through-Thursday shows fill hotel rooms, restaurants and shops when nothing else is going on.

“It trickles down to even the dishwashers and valets,” Trainer says. He noted the center brought 7,500 people into town in two days for the anniversary Motley Crue shows in 2013.

Welkowitz saidhe doesn’t know of any arena in a municipality in the state that’s not subsidized – except for the event center.

“It’s a great thing for the community,” Welkowitz said. “It keeps Bethlehem in the minds of people. One of the reasons the Sands has enjoyed the success it has is because of the event center.”

Trainer agreed. “It’s done so well. Now someone penalizes you for doing a good job. I guess it’s just frustrating that when you do your job well, that’s when they go after you.”